Thursday, December 11, 2014

US retail workers need a new bill of rights - Summary 10

In her December 10th article, "US retail workers need a new bill of rights", from Al Jazeera's opinion section, author Amy Dean posits that minimum wage jobs are no longer the "life-sustaining endeavour[s]" the once were, but are "abusive" (Paragraph 3, 4). She calls out employers like Walmart, McDonald's, and Barnes & Noble for their poor treatment of employees. As a stand against such abuse, retail workers have concluded that "they need a new form of protection: a bill of rights" (Paragraph 9). She gives an example of such a bill passed in San Francisco, which is expected to provide "much needed stability and flexibility" to over 400,000 workers (ibid). Dean argues that employers have failed to keep up with the times, but notes that municipal powers have been picking up slack where America has failed federally to provide for minimum wage workers. She calls on Congress to get its act together, and Americans to "support the efforts of those who are working long hours to make our season bright" (Paragraph 14, 15).